The Wikimedia India Chapter (Registered Name: Wikimedia Chapter) is an independent and not-for-profit organization that supports, promotes and educate the general Indian public about the availability and use of free and open educational content, which includes the ability to access, develop and contribute to encyclopaedias, dictionaries, books, images, etc.

Wikimedia India was formally approved by the Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation after the recommendation of the Chapters Committee in June 2010 and India became the 29th country to host a Wikimedia Chapter. The Wikimedia Chapter was formally registered as a Non-profit Society vide Registrar of Societies, Bangalore Urban District on 03 Jan 2011. Wikimedia India is an approved chapter by the Wikimedia Foundation for Wikimedians living in, or connected to India.

This chapter helps coordinate various Indian language Wikipedias & other Wikimedia projects and spread the word in India. Chapter's latest updates can be accessed from its official portal Wiki wiki.wikimedia.in.

It is an autonomous entity that does not have any editorial control over content on Wikipedia and its related projects. The Chapter does not have access to the servers hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation in the USA.

Membership is open to Indian citizens (aged 18 years and above) and Institutions registered in India.

Fees: The annual membership fee (as on Mar 2012) is Rs 100/- for Individuals and Rs 1000/- for Institutions.

Membership Term: The membership term runs from the date of approval of said membership and ends on 31st March of the same financial year. Membership applications are accepted throughout the year. There are no multi year or life membership options.

Payment mode: The membership fee can be paid either by DD/Cheque/NEFT/Internet banking transfer (for SBI account holders) to Chapter Bank account. Please do not deposit cash/outstation cheques into Chapter SBI Bank account, at SBI branches as Bank levies Rs 25 as inter branch fee (as of Aug 2011). Please transfer the amount through NEFT as the charges are lower. Cash is not accepted for membership fee as of now.

Application processing: The Chapter membership committee will endeavour to process all applications within four weeks

WMC reserves the right to reject membership applications, with reason. In such cases, if payment is already made, the same will be refunded without any interest for the intervening period otherwise, the payment instrument (Cheque/DD) will be returned. However, the Rules and Regulations of the Wikimedia Chapter provide for appeal in such cases in Article IV-1. “In cases where the Executive Committee does not approve the application for membership of a person, said person may appeal to the General Body at the next Annual General Meeting.”

Wikimedia India Chapter ( Reg Name : Wikimedia Chapter) is a not-for-profit organisation which gratefully receives your donations, no matter how large or small. Please note that donations to Wikimedia Chapter are not non-tax deductible in India, as of now. We are currently working on 12A and 80G tax exemption applications.

We appeal to the community, members, philanthropic individuals and organizations to support us at Wikimedia India through donations. As a newly registered entity, we depend on the generous contributions of people like you to support the activities and projects of our volunteers throughout the country. If you wish to donate for a specific purpose or project aligned with the objectives of the Chapter, we would be happy to discuss this with you at the email address provided below.

Donations can be made via Cheque, Demand Draft, NEFT and Internet banking and the completed donation form should be emailed to chapter@wikimedia.in.

A direct deposit, NEFT and Internet banking can be made to our bank account.

If you are making a contribution by DD/cheque please make them payable to "Wikimedia Chapter" , payable in Bangalore and send them to:

Wikimedia Chapter

No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross

Dommaluru 2nd Stage

Bangalore - 560071

Once the payment is processed, we will send you a receipt.

As of now, due to regularity body restrictions, we can accept donations only from India or Indian citizens.

30-Sep-2004: An IRC meeting on September 30, 2004 at 15:30 IST. For a summary of the discussion, please see 2004 IRC meeting.

Nov-2007: The discussions have been re-initiated in November 2007, and several people have responded enthusiastically on the WikimediaIndia-l mailing list (please see the November 2007 archive). A draft of proposed bylaws is available here.